Finals - Quiz 1: Death and Spirituality

Death

Si Lola Isyang at ang Matandang Puno ng Story line: Death is always there to find you even
if you run away.
Kaimito
by Chary Lou Navaro
Theme: Fear of Death
Point of view: 3rd person
Ghost
• Ang Puno ng Kaimito (Star Apple Tree) by Connie Jan Maranan
- katandaan
• Daliri ng hangin Point of view: 1st person
- pagdating ng kamatayan
• Dahan dahang pinipitas Important Notes:
- patuloy na pagkaubos ng dahon
• Mata ni lola ay kinurot Half a pair of Brazilian loafers
- hudyat ng kamatayan niya used to identify the persona
• Hangin given by a friend
- acceptance
- personified (personification) Persona
• The removal of the leaves of the old • a development worker
kaimito tree can represent Lola Isyang as • daily commuter on Manila’s rapid transit
she reached her own death. system
• discovered she was a ghost by fleeting back
Theme: Acceptance of Death and forth across the Superhighway and
allowing the speeding vehicles to pass
through her, through the absence of her
Death and the Merchant of Istfahan
by Anthony Tan senses.
• purchased a statue of the Nazarene
Point of view: 1st person - Ed de la Torre’s
favorite
• Ubiquitous One - had the perfect
- may mean God or Death Mediterranean
• Persona tan (olive and
- a merchant (peddler of rugs) sinewy)
- greeted at the gates of heaven by this - should never
Ubiquitous One. been the Virgin
- compared this greeting to a houri - Virgin was too
(beautiful virgins of the paradise in mestiza looking
Muslim belief) in which he felt and restrained
undeserving. • regretted not settling her business with her
- called himself a mere merchant who lover, her memories of him and how they
had fallen in a jihad (war of faith) were together.
and not a warrior nor a man of faith • began commuting by train the first time they
- trying to run from death were living together
- go to another place with his camel • continued to take the rush hour after their
• Houri departure
- had black eyes (dark antelope eyes) • “life is pain”
- mock please of persona’s humility • “had to keep moving, keep working, keep
- “I am a whore, all men equal in my bed. I burying you deeper into the grave” -
was wondering why you were still in Referring to her lover
Isfahan when we have a tryst today in • “Life and saintly faces became my prayer.
Samarra” Hypnotic, like silver medals strung around
• Caravan to Kathmandu your neck”
• lived on the outskirts, near a memorial park
• no longer feel human sensation
Poem: Talks about spiritual struggle • persona and partner = not married (5 year
relationship)
D.Y.A | 3G PH
 - shop owner’s intention was to dress the
Persona’s partner figurine in khaki but it seemed
• has culinary experiments blasphemous

Stampita
• prayer cards
Persona’s first friend
• spoiled persona
• smothered attention to persona Figures of Creator
• taught her the subtle art of handholding • cried out, no longer omnipotent, enfeebled by
• palms were well-padded and soft the culture of price tags
• taught persona the discipline of relaxing the • medallion used to hang from the neck
grip • argentine in sunlight
• cool when cheek is lay upon
Early 1980s
• persona was leading an intense activist life Hermaphrodites in reverse
• spirits
1984 • having neither set of genitalia
• terrible argument with her lover
• lunged at her lover with a machete Cityscapes
• despite lover due to defiant posture and • offensively panoramic
betrayal
• her lover proclaimed that s/he has a right to Love
any lover who would give him/her children • sporting event

Neighbors of persona Red banana

• occupied with renting videocassettes and • partner stole for persona when that poor lola
playing mahjong wasn’t looking

Trains Notable Events:

• moniker
• put into operation by Belgian sponsors • She saw our Creator and He is not as fatherly as most
(mid-1890s) of us thought to be. She described Him as having an
• solution to metro manila’s traffic problem androgynous appearance with an angelic face that is
both beautiful and handsome, as well as having
wisdom and wit that contradicts his appearance.
Crash of 1990
• She remembered more of the memories she had before
• gory, shocking, and sensational for the like her first train ride, her first visit to Tayuman, her
average citizen activist life with her lover and how they were not
found out.
Tayuman • She started missing her senses, as there was no more
• referred to as “weird kind of street, human sensations where she was. She was still getting
something surreal” used to not having them and to the fact that there was
• Place where persona conducted a casual no more need for language. Such were times when she
survey of religious figurines: sees the faces of joy; she knew she lived through them,
- spooky life sized saints ; miniatures but knowing that she did was different from actually
feeling it.
that could fit in the palm of one’s hand,
doll-like statues • She then drifted on about how she fell in love and how
- complexations: severely peach to she must have been remembered by someone and how
by remembering her, she somehow became alive,
pellucid pale though only in memory.
- some saints: cheery ; others: grim ; • She then waited, in darkness, for someone to
many were so stingy remember her, for who she once was. So that she may
• first time of persona: take on the shape of a memory and once more, even
- bunch of banana caught her attention though it’s just an instance, feel that she is alive.
- banana was neither ripe yellow nor
verdant green but instead a burning orange
somewhere between rust and gold
- saw a Christ child figurine wearing a
police uniform

D.Y.A | 3G PH
 SPIRITUALITY

Gabu Pepe
by Carlos Angeles • friend of Ben
Teddy
1st stanza: • cousin
• Gabu • at the ticket booth
– A place in Ilocos Norte near the sea
– Often, when typhoons occur, places like this
Luzon cafe
are affected greatly
– Tsunami Dr. Martinez
– Ex: typhoon Imbudo, July 2003 • has a baritone laugh
• The sea is restless and can be destructive • stands by the door of his wife’s drugstore
• Sea = Life
Tito
• Battering restlessness = Impermanent • talks about a swim in San Miguel tomorrow
• sent love letter to Marita
2nd stanza:
Centaurus
The turmoil of the sea is continuous and powerful • half-men half-horse
•
• Brutal bashing = life’s chaos Milky way
• Elemental wound = Depths of the sea
Mr. Cruz
3rd stanza: • if there are people who live in Mars, people would look
• The sea has been there for centuries like him said Tito
• Waste of centuries = Past Alfredo
• Once the sea touches shore, it becomes neutral • Ben’s Father
• Spilt salt = Bad luck • gave Ben a book about space
• Saltiness of the sea describes it’s darkness/ • engineer
deadness • his pipe is blue and fragrant
• chevy
• Time bears the “spilt salt” of life • Irrigation project at San Miguel
• been away all week due to a construction job at La
4th stanza: Union
• The brilliance necessary for life is not there
Mr. Macapinlac
because in life even the most important things are • reading a newspaper on his front porch
lost
Pining
5th stanza: • one who cooks them supper
• Waves show that the sea is constantly moving, • old Mayon stove
but always towards the shore Mrs. Aquino
• Life is bounded by time, always moving, but • next door neighbour of Ben
what we all desire is a stable and eternal ending
• Spiritual context: Tia Dora
• Shore = afterlife • Ben’s aunt

Luz
Figures of speech: • her sister
• Metaphor
– Sea = life Chitong
• Personification • Luz’s fiance
– The vital splendor misses
– the sea pursues Pol
• Ben’s brother
• Synechdoche • lawyer
– Brutal the daylong bashing of its heart
• Paradox Remy
– All things forfeited are most loved and dear • sister-in-law
Father Panlilo
• fund drive for the parochial school
The Distance to Andromeda
by Gregorio Brilliantes
Time: Saturday evening
Characters:
Third World War
Ben • rocket ship got away and landed on another planet
• thirteen years old • terror
• watched a film in the town of Tarlac
• thinks of staying for one more screening
• Romulo street
• Cine Oriente
D.Y.A | 3G PH
Symbolisms:

Rocket ship Setting:

• escape from reality • In the forgotten town of Cupang in the Philippines
• burol na may parang may karnabal
Asteroids
• limits Conflict:
When bad things happen in Kupang, People thought that these
Summary: were curses. When good things happen, these are deeds of the
Virgin Mary.
Ben rushed to gate and opened it for his father. His father
asked Chitong to stay for supper but he declined. They all went Theme: Filipino Spirituality
inside the house. Ben described the movie to his father. He told
Ben that the world would last long. After his father came back Structure: Episodic structure
downstairs, they ate supper. Ben’s father described Pining as
the best cook. Then his mother said that his father was the best
engineer, Pol proclaimed that he was the best lawyer and his
father said that Ben’s mother is the best wife in the world.
After dinner, they all went to the veranda.

Ben caught the streak of a shooting star on the corner of his

eye together with his family.The fear has gone, the lonely
helpless shrinking felt love surrounds him and no evil can
touch him.He imagines the greatness of the earth at it sees its
new beginning. His father is home, all of them are safe and
home in the night.

On the way home, he stopped on the bridge and contemplated

about his existence in the vast universe. He was startled by a
calesa and continued his journey. His father was not yet home
when he arrived. His sister, Luz, was with her fiance, Chitong,
in the veranda. His mother was talking to his Tia Dora in their
porch. Pol, his brother, was busy working on a case as a
lawyer. He went to his sister-in-law, Remy, and her baby, and
Baby spewed gruel on his face. He went to the sink to wash his
face and Pining asked him about the movie. Ben then went to
their front yard and lied on the grass, wondering about
Martians. An echo of a name then came to his mind but he
could not remember it, then he heard the approaching sound of
his father’s car.

Himala
by Ricky Lee

Point of View: 3rd person

Characters:
• Aling Pising
- paikot ikot na naglalakad
• Mrs Alba
- nagtitinda ng benditadong tubig
• Siyete Apostoles
• Baldo
- nagmamando
• Mayor
- sinabi sa Chief of police na hulihin ang sinumang
magsalita laban sa Diyos, sa gobyerno, at sakaniya
• Chief of Police (Chief De La Cruz)
- tumango
• Kapatid ni Chua
- nabuhay
- may ari ng Mercedes benz
- may sakit
• Orly
- photographer
• Lolo Hugo at Mrs. Gonzales
- nagrorosaryo
- hinanap ni Lolo si Bella
- nanigas si Mrs. Gonzales
• Igmeng Bugaw
- naghahanap, mapapangiti, nilalapitan ang mga
turistang puti
- binubugaw si Bella sa mga turistang puti
• Bella
- wearing color green and make up
• Elsa
- “walang himala”
- dead after being shot
• Sepa
- sinabing santa si Elsa
D.Y.A | 3G PH